


Play 'God Only Knows' at My Funeral

by aneurysmface



Series: Oh, Common Life [6]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: I think that's it for warnings, M/M, mentions of past child abuse in relation to Chris and Gerard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1478887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aneurysmface/pseuds/aneurysmface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is the story of how everything changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Play 'God Only Knows' at My Funeral

Chris grows up with a cloud hanging over his head. He can feel when it starts to grow into a storm cloud, full of rage and wrath: the night that he tells his father to spare a six-year-old Peter Hale’s life. From that point on, he knows that he’ll only ever be half the man his father wants him to be; he’ll be the highly trained hunter, but he won’t be the cold-blooded killer.

Chris knows that he made a choice in that moment. He made a decision to honor a different code. It had earned him a beating that first time. The second time that he intervenes to save Peter Hale’s skin, he does it unintentionally. He’s helping Gerard move boxes into the new house in Beacon Hills when Gerard freezes, squinting off into the distance. He claims that he can see a wolf, starts walking in that direction, when Chris reaches out and grabs his arm. He tells Gerard to just leave it be for now, that it isn’t bothering them so they shouldn’t bother it.

The sparks a fire in Gerard and he starts yelling, even lands a few hits on Chris. Chris didn’t know that it was Peter watching them from a distance, not until Peter recounts the story of watching them move in almost ten years later

The third time that Chris saves Peter’s life is the morning when the Argent house wakes up to find seventeen pumpkins smashed on their front lawn, the guts strewn about the front of the house. There’s no way of determining who did it, but Gerard says he knows it was the Hales. Chris begs him to let it go, that it was probably just some kids out on a seasonal night of mischief. Gerard lands a good swift kick to Chris’ knee that leaves him hobbling for a week, but drops the subject.

Chris tells Peter all of this one night when he’s looking for a fight and Peter manages to catch him before he can really aggravate the biker at the bar. It’s before they start screwing, but after they’ve started a fragile friendship, so Peter throws an arm around Chris’ should and takes advantage of his inebriation to steer him toward the door and into Peter’s car.

The night is crisp, so Peter drives them to his apartment and helps Chris up to the rooftop, dumps Chris into one of the Adirondack chairs Peter keeps up there. And because he knows Chris isn’t going to talk first, Peter drops into the chair next to him, starts talking about his life in terms of encounters with Gerard. He tells Chris he figures the topic will either get him to open up and start the healing process or make him angry enough to start throwing punches, which Peter can take without too much trouble, and get out some of the rage that he knows Chris is hiding.

He starts with the night that Gerard killed his mother and Chris makes a face.

He continues with the day the Argents moved to Beacon Hills. Chris interrupts to tell him that Gerard had known he was there. Peter tells him he wouldn’t have cared, that he nearly walked straight to the man when Peter saw him throw those punches. Chris smirks and tells him they was hardly the worst hits he’s taken in his life.

Peter finishes with the night that he smashed those pumpkins and is surprised when Chris laughs out loud, head thrown back and a smile spread across his face. He asks what’s so funny.

Chris explains that Gerard had known it was him, that Chris hadn’t been able to walk properly for a week because he’d kept Gerard from going after the Hales. He says that he can’t blame Peter because he knows he’d have done at least something similar--or worse--if the man who had killed his mother had moved into town like it was completely normal. Peter tells him about the note, then, explains that it wasn’t Gerard, but Kate that made him angry that night.

Chris sobers up then, looks Peter square in the eye an apologizes. Chris knows what Kate did, knows that she seduced and used a teenage Derek Hale with the intention of learning the opportune moment to destroy his entire family, to try and destroy Peter.

He looks at Peter for a moment longer, then says, “I’m glad you’re a hard man to kill.”

Peter smiles. “Yeah, me, too.”

They spend a few minutes in companionable silence, looking up at the night sky where a few stars are still visible even with the light pollution coming from town. Chris breaks the silence.

“You know, I have no idea how Gerard ended up like he did.”

“Oh?” Peter quirks an eyebrow.

“My grandparents were like me… like Allison. Except Gerard still respected his father, thought of him as the ultimate hunter because he’d taught Gerard everything he knew. He used to ship me off to stay with them whenever he felt I wasn’t doing well enough in my training.” Chris pauses, “I spent a lot of time with my grandparents.”

“They must’ve been good people, if you didn’t turn out like your sister.”

“Yeah, they were.” Chris takes a deep breath, “They were French-Canadian, lived in Montréal, spoke broken English and my French was even worse. But they could read me like a book. They always knew exactly which bruises were from Gerard and which were from training. If I got up in the morning with even the slightest hint of a bad mood, my grandmother would know and she’d pull me down onto my knees next to her at the altar they had in the living room--very Catholic, my grandparents--and help me through my morning prayers.”

Chris drums his fingers on the arm of his chair, “They’re the ones that taught me mercy. They taught me to pray for people rather than just killing them.”

“I think I’d have liked your grandparents, Christopher.”

“I think they would have hated you.” Chris smiles as he says it, lets Peter know that their hatred wouldn’t have been because of what Peter is, “They would’ve hated you because you’re corrupting me, Peter Hale.”

“And how am I corrupting you?” Peter smiles back at Chris.

“You’re proving that the world isn’t black and white. According to the code, you don’t deserve to live. You’ve killed a hunter, even though she deserved it, and you murdered one of your own in cold blood.” Chris reaches out when Peter’s eyes slide shut and his jaw tenses so much that Chris can hear his teeth grinding, “but you’re the gray area, Peter. Everything you did, it’s all our fault. You were just caught up in it.”

“Christopher, you know--”

“No, I do know. I know I’m right. Would you have killed Kate if she hadn’t killed your family? Would you have murdered Laura if you hadn’t been mad with pain over that loss? I don’t think so.” Chris studies Peter’s face again, “You can be cold, but you’re not cold-blooded without reason. You’re too logical for that.”

“I’m still half-crazy, you know that, right?”

“You’d be boring if you weren’t.”

Peter laughs. “You know, you’re OK for an Argent.”

“And you’re not bad for a Hale.”

They smile at each other and Peter can almost feel the world shift around them. Their uneasy truce becomes a true friendship in that moment, becomes the foundation for the rest of their lives.

->->->\---------->

Those two Adirondack chairs are still up on the roof of Peter’s apartment complex. They’re a bit more weathered now, but they still find the time to go up there and just sit together whenever things get rough. Those chairs are where they talk out their problems, come up with solutions. It’s where Peter begins hatching his plan to get Derek to finally start talking to Stiles about the fondness he’s been harboring, where Chris explains to Peter that Isaac is leaving for college in the fall and he thinks he’s going to drop the lease on the old apartment once he’s gone, where Peter quietly produces a silver ring one night, six years after the moment when everything changed, and Chris says yes.

**Author's Note:**

> [Play 'God Only Knows' at My Funeral](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb_0aoXud38) by Fireworks.


End file.
